Cría cuervos... DVD

A classic of Spanish cinema, this atmospheric and haunting look at childhood from 1976 is one of those movies that stays with you for a long time.

From the publisher: Carlos Saura’s exquisite Cría cuervos . . . heralded a turning point in Spain: shot while General Franco was on his deathbed, the film melds the personal and the political in a portrait of the legacy of fascism and its effects on a middle-class family (the title derives from the Spanish proverb: “Raise ravens and they’ll peck out your eyes”). Ana Torrent (the dark-eyed beauty from The Spirit of the Beehive) portrays the disturbed eight-year-old Ana, living in Madrid with her two sisters and mourning the death of her mother, whom she conjures as a ghost (an ethereal Geraldine Chaplin). Seamlessly shifting between fantasy and reality, the film subtly evokes both the complex feelings of childhood and the struggles of a nation emerging from the shadows.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Portrait of Carlos Saura, a documentary on the life and career of the Spanish auteur
• New interviews with actresses Geraldine Chaplin and Ana Torrent
• Original theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Paul Julian Smith